1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method and to a printing apparatus and method. More specifically, the present invention relates to a printing system including a host computer and a printing apparatus for providing high security for printed documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the popularity of printing systems for sharing a printing apparatus connected via a network has increased. In an environment where a plurality of users use a printing apparatus, a user who desires a printout is often remote from the printing apparatus when printing. Moreover, the output print data can be accessed by a third party, and high security is not achievable.
A printing apparatus that provides high security is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-212744. This printing apparatus stores, for example, a print job with a personal identification number (PIN) or password in a storage medium in the printing apparatus, such as a memory or a hard disk, and prints the print job once a user enters the PIN or password on a main panel of the printing apparatus. The printer does not begin printing until a user who desires a printout is physically at the printing apparatus, and high security is therefore achievable because the output print data is not accessible by any third party.
The so-called secured print allows a print job received by a printing apparatus to be kept, and does not actually print it until a user enters a password on an operation panel of the printing apparatus.
It is also necessary for the user to specify a print job at the printing apparatus to start printing. Generally, a desired print job is selected from a list of print jobs displayed on the screen of the printing apparatus, and a password is entered to start printing. Alternatively, an ID card may be used in view of high usability (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-150559). Specifically, ID information registered in the ID card may be used as a PIN or password. When the ID card is inserted into a printing apparatus, the ID information is read, and a print job associated with the read ID information is searched for, and the print job is printed.
If print job data transmitted on a network is monitored and copied, and the copied print job data is sent to another printing apparatus, a printout of the print job data may be caught by a third party. If data stored in a printing apparatus is copied and the copied data is sent to another printing apparatus, a print out of the print job data may also be caught by a third party. In order to avoid these situations, a system for encrypting print job data transmitted on a network or job data stored in a printing apparatus is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-134264.
With the recent wide prevalence of IC cards, an IC card may be used instead of the ID card described above to easily enter a PIN or password. Due to their high performance, IC cards can be used to encrypt job data, and a higher-security system that makes it impossible to perform decrypting without an IC card used for encryption is conceivable.
In printing an encrypted secured print job using an IC card, generally, each print client computer must have an IC card reader/writer device. However, an IC card reader/writer device provided for each print client computer for only the purpose of encryption becomes costly.
Printing with encryption generally requires a long time. Thus, in secured printing, if the user can select only printing with encryption, usability is poor for print jobs that do not need to be encrypted.